Sweetz Bakery: Dulles Town Center Mall, VA

Sweetz Bakery
Regular: $3.25

Here at Cupcake Correspondence we eat, drink, and sleep cupcakes! Well, that may be an overstatement, but we do spend time thinking about cupcakes and where we will go next. Lucky for us sometimes cupcakes just appear before our eyes, as if our Cupcake Fairy Godmother sprinkled fairy dust more sprinkles, and a cupcake kiosk materialized in the food court of the Dulles Town Center Mall… Sweetz Bakery.

This nondescript cupcake stand was almost to good to be true, and left Chocolate Gauche and I wondering if these beautifully simple cupcakes where actually real. The available flavors all sounded and looked delectable. Plus they had gluten free, dairy free, and vegan cupcakes all displayed and ready to buy in multiple flavors. So we selected a GF Double Chocolate cupcake, Mexican Hot Chocolate cupcake, and Red Velvet cupcake. We soon discovered that our Cupcake Fairy Godmother had a few treats up her shelves, because these cupcakes were anything but nondescript…

GF Double Chocolate Cupcake

The GF Double Chocolate cupcake had a moist and fluffy dark chocolate cake, with a smooth chocolate buttercream filling and topping. The chocolate buttercream was one of the best we ever had, with a perfect balance of a sweet and chocolate. With most GF cupcakes it is easy to distinguish them from their gluten counterparts, but Sweetz Bakery gets a gold star for creating a moist GF cupcake that could fool anyone into believing it’s not gluten free… must be that Cupcake Fairy Godmother at work again.

When thinking of Mexican Hot Chocolate two things come to mind chocolate and spice. Well, this cupcake had both, with a perfect blend of the chocolate and spice flavors working together in harmony. The dark chocolate cake was just that… chocolate! This chocolaty cake was topped with a chocolate buttercream that had just a hint of spice. This combination of flavors could have been overpowering, but Sweetz Bakery has clearly spent some time balancing the flavors and it paid off.

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcake

The Red Velvet had the best cream cheese frosting we have ever tasted. It was smooth and perfectly sweet, and tasted like an actual cheesecake with just a lighter texture. The cake had a beautiful burgundy color, which let us know that Sweetz Bakery knew what they were doing with their red velvet recipe (no neon red coloring here). The cake had a nice rich coco and brown sugar taste to it that is reminiscent of any good red velvet.

All in all, the Cupcake Fairy Godmother granted us a magical wish when we found Sweetz Bakery. These are definitely gourmet cupcakes, and you can taste the quality of ingredients in every bite. So head down to the Dulles Town Center Mall’s food court and visit our friends at Sweetz Bakery. According to their website they are opening a retail store in Leesberg soon, and we can’t wait to visit them there too!

Red Velvet Cupcake

Gluten Free: Yes (multiple assorted flavors offered daily)
Dairy Free: Yes
Vegan: Yes
Sugar Free: Not Available

Cupcake Atmosphere: 3 out of 5 (The kiosk was clean but not eye catching, but the cupcakes are all displayed. We are looking forward to seeing the new retail store in Leesberg when it opens!)
Flavor Selection: 5 out of 5 (many yummy flavors available that where both on trend and innovative)
Customer Service: 5 out of 5 (the two cupcake representatives greeted us with a smile and seemed to be working hard)

Overall Quality: 5 out of 5 (This place was a great surprise! Thank you Cupcake Fairy Godmother :) )

Buzz Bakery: Arlington, VA

Buzz Bakery
Regular $3.25
Gluten-Free $2.75

Have you ever been to a place were your sweetest dreams comes true? 

You wake up and "hold your breath...Make a wish...Count to three..." 


Next you find yourself standing in a bakery and the words straight from Willy Wonka enter your mind..."Come with me and you'll be in a world of pure imagination. Take a look and you'll see into your imagination. We'll begin with a spoon, tasting the buttercream of their creation. What we'll see will defy temptations." 

Ok, we changed the words a little, but who can blame us. This is our childhood dream treats on steroids. How can we not walk into this bakery and not get "buzzy" thinking about cupcakes filled with cookie dough and grown-up pop tarts and such. It's bliss (now thats a nice name for a cupcake shop. It's now copyrighted, lol).

Picking which cupcake to try was "the" hardest selection we had . So we picked the following for this tasty stop: 

Gluten-free Chocolate on Chocolate Cupcake

The Gluten free chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. The cake itself was very moist and had a great chocolate taste. A better grade of chocolate than we have tasted in the past. Very impressed to see gluten free getting better and better out there. The frosting was just as divine as the cake. It was frothy and very smooth. Having three more of these would have been bliss. The colorful sprinkles on top is the prefect touch. I love sprinkles!

The COOKIE MONSTER, has a chocolate chip cookie cake with raw (yes, you heard me-yummy moment) cookie dough core covered  with an Oreo italian buttercream topped perfectly with a oatmeal cream pie. This speaks for itself. This is the one both of us were dying to try after seeing this Bakery on TV and they talked and showed this dream of a cupcake. If only TV's were are scratch and taste. Life would be more complete. 

inside Cookie Monster cupcake

We have never heard of Italian buttercream before, so we looked up the recipe and thought you would enjoy making this too: 

1/2 cup of cold water

2 1/4 cups of caster sugar
1 cup of egg whites (about 6 egg whites) 
1 1/2 pound of soft unsalted butter
1 tsp of vanilla extract

9:30 Club Cupcake

The 9:30 CLUB, which is devil's food cake with vanilla buttercream filling and dipped with delicious chocolate glaze. This design looks a lot like another cake we are all so familiar with. This is by far the replacement of that other cake. This is a must try. It is moist and smooth. I personally could eat a bowl of the glaze. It's my favorite kind of glaze. But good thing we brought Mom along on this trip. This was her pick and it was gone in seconds.

White Rabbit Cupcake

The WHITE RABBIT, is a parsnip cake with a yummy cream cheese buttercream topped with toasted coconut and a carrot (how cute is that? A wink to the people who know us). Another "must try" on our list for this Bakery. The design is cute, and the taste wasn't too strong, but still carried the favor throughout. The cream cheese buttercream was a little to tart, but CarrotCake enjoyed every moment of it.


Over all, this was a dream to visit and we hope that Buzz Bakery continues to amaze it's tasters with the most imaginative cupcakes. Until our next visit we dream with sweets and cupcakes dancing in our heads. 

Gluten Free: Yes ( Chocolate and Vanilla offered daily)

Sugar Free: Not Available

Vegan: Not Available

Cupcake Atmosphere: 4 out of 5 (Classic and cute)

Flavor Selection: 5 out of 5 (Must imaginative cupcakes)

Customer Service: 4 out of 5 (Happy staff and willing to help. Loved that they asked if the gluten free need to be in a separate box)

Overall Quality: 4 out of 5

Second Bite - Cake Love: Tysons Corner Mall, VA

Cake Love: Tysons Corner Mall
Regular: $3.35 each

Like any guilty pleasure (or bad boyfriend), it is hard to just give it up, because there was something that drew you in the first time and just keeps drawing you in again and again... For us at Cupcake Correspondents it is Cake Love, and our undying hope that one day it'll return to that guilty pleasure we once knew and loved.

Toffee Crunch Cupcake

In this Second Bite Edition of Cupcake Correspondents we rediscovered Cake Love, but we forsook our old flame at the Fair Oaks Mall and ran off with its' cousin at the Tysons Corner Mall. All part of the same Cake Love family of confections, yet the Tysons Corner Mall Cake Love restored our faith in cupcake redemption. Alas! The Toffee Crunch Cupcake and Vanilla Cupcake with Strawberry Buttercream were a step in the right yummy direction!

We haven't been shy in our disappointment in the dry and flavorless cakes that have been coming out of the Fair Oaks Mall location, but the two cupcakes we had at Tysons were moist and flavorful. We will say that the Cake Love bakers should pay closer attention when filling the cupcake molds so as not to splash the cake batter over the sides of the cupcake pan, because it makes for an irregularly shaped cupcake top...  but enough about that...

Vanilla Cupcake with Strawberry Buttercream

The Toffee Crunch Cupcake was a moist yet dense chocolate cake topped with vanilla buttercream frosting, caramel drizzle, and sprinkled with toffee chunks. The vanilla buttercream was on point with a light and smooth texture, and a perfectly sweet vanilla taste. The toffee chunks gave it a pleasant crunchy texture on top too.

The Vanilla Cupcake with Strawberry Buttercream frosting was a perfect summertime treat! They worked fresh strawberries into the vanilla buttercream, which reminded us of a classic summertime pairing of strawberries and cream... YUM! The vanilla cake was good and moist, but like the chocolate cake it was denser than other cupcakeries' cupcakes... all about what you prefer.

Way to go Cake Love! We look forward to seeing more improvement, and will be willing to volunteer our tastebuds for many more Second Bites!

Overall Quality (updated): 2.5 3.5 out of 5